Havana

Folders

Malecón

The Malecón (officially Avenida de Maceo) is a broad esplanade, roadway and seawall which stretches for 8km along the coast in Havana, from the mouth of Havana Harbor in Old Havana, along the north side of the Centro Habana neighborhood, ending in the Vedado neighborhood.

El MaleconHavana was laid out in the first decade of the 1900s by American authorities, who gained control of Cuba after the 1898 Spanish-American War.By the 1920s the road had reached the outer limits of burgeoning Vedado, and by the early 1950s it had metamorphosed into a busy six-lane highway. Today the Malecón remains Havana's most authentic open-air theater, a real-life 'cabaret of the poor' where the whole city comes to meet, greet, date and debate.

Fighting an ongoing battle with the corrosive effects of the ocean, many of the thoroughfare's magnificent buildings now face decrepitude, demolition or irrevocable damage. The Malecón is particularly evocative when a cold front blows in and massive waves crash thunderously over the sea wall. The road is often closed to cars at these times, meaning you can walk right down the middle of the empty thoroughfare and get very wet.

Along the Malecón are a number of important monuments:

● Monument to the Victims of the USS Maine.

● Plaza de la Dignidad with statue of José Martí and in front of the United States Interests Section in Havana